[Vwdiesel] Occasional hard starting, ideas?

[Roger Brown]

David Cook wrote:
> --- "Doyt W. Echelberger" <doyt at buckeye-express.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> At 08:47 PM 1/8/2006, you wrote:
> 
>>> It seems weird that I'd get some smoke out of the
>>> tailpipe before it would even cough while starting.
>> ..........................you are squirting fuel
>> into the cylinders and 
>> compressing it 23 to 1, which makes it VERY hot. Hot
>> enough to resemble 
>> smoke, maybe.
> 
> Well, that makes a lot of sense.
> 
> It sounds like I let some of the smoke out of the
> relay (but not quite all of it...) when the wire
> touched.  Since the relay was seemingly getting flaky
> before, it wouldn't surprise me if it is just about
> dead now.
> 
> Anyone have a fast-glow relay to sell?  If I'm going
> to replace the relay, I want to switch to a fast glow
> system.
> 
> To answer other posts, yes, now the 50 amp fuse is
> intact.  Before, it was just a wire jumper installed
> by the previous owner of the donor car and I knew I
> should replace it but never did.
> 
> And, I will make sure I have the car plugged in, and
> will strongly consider the pushbotton option, though I
> do have a strong aversion to non-factory-look switches
> on the dash, so I would either hide it, or put it in
> the engine compartment for until I can find a new
> relay.

You might try popping the cover off the relay and see if perhaps the contacts are pitted or something that you may be able to 
file smooth and get them working again.  May not last a long time but may be able to get some use out of it until you find a 
replacement.  If swapping to fast glows, you can usually get a pretty good deal on 4 plugs and a relay in one pkg.  Last one I 
got was a Bosch kit from VW.  Was priced about the same as for the 4 glow plugs alone.


-- 
    Roger